Anthony Volpe loses potential tying homer on fan interference ruling

Anthony Volpe and the New York Yankees briefly thought they had erased a deficit in the sixth inning of Game 3 of the American League Division Series on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium. Volpe’s deep drive to left field against the Tampa Bay Rays was initially signalled as a two-run home run, but a replay review overturned the call to a fan interference double. The Rays were leading 4-2 at the time and ultimately held on for a 4-3 win to take the game and the series, ending the Yankees’ postseason.

Fan reaches over wall, replay turns homer into double

On the pivotal play, Volpe lifted a ball toward the left-field wall with Victor Mesa Jr. settling under it to attempt a catch. A fan in the first row reached out over the barrier and made contact with the ball while it was still above the field of play. The umpires on the field signalled a home run, but the Rays challenged and the call went to the MLB Replay Center.

Angle-by-angle review showed that the ball was not on a trajectory to clear the fence and would have stayed in the yard. It also did not provide conclusive evidence that Mesa would have completed a catch. Under MLB’s spectator interference rule, when a fan reaches over the barrier and touches a live ball, umpires must place the batter and runners where they judge they would have ended up without the interference.

In this case, replay officials determined that Volpe would have reached second and that George Lombard Jr., who was on first base and running with two outs, would have scored. The ruling turned what had been announced as a game-tying two-run homer into an RBI double that merely cut the Rays’ lead to a single run.

Managers weigh in and MLB explains the decision

Yankees manager Aaron Boone acknowledged afterward that he suspected something was off as soon as the ball left the bat. He said that once he saw the replays, he felt the umpires had handled the situation properly and arrived at the correct outcome.

Rays manager Kevin Cash, meanwhile, argued for a more severe outcome. He maintained that from his vantage point, the ball looked catchable for Mesa and that the play should have been ruled an out rather than a double. His protest did not change the ruling on the field.

Major League Baseball later released a statement from the Replay Center saying that the crew "definitively determined the spectator interfered with the ball over the field of play" and that the ball "would not have left the playing field nor would it have been caught." Based on that judgment, they awarded one run and placed Volpe at second base.

The decision loomed large as the Rays protected their slim advantage the rest of the way. New York never found the tying run, and the overturned home run became one of the defining moments of a narrow loss that ended the Yankees’ season in the Division Series.